Goal feast in tied, unusual match

May 10, 2010 on 6:39 am | In MATCH REPORTS | Comments Off

Men’s Premier League South/West
By coach, Gary Leigh
As the score line suggests this was a goal feast; what it doesn’t reflect is the drama that surrounded this match.

The River made all the early running and completely dominated in midfield, the one touch football was a sight to behold.

The defence also were playing well with Jon Richards calling the game from the back.

River took the lead when Glenn Skyme shot stuck the crossbar and rebounded to Sam Parrott to slot home from close range.

Margaret River were awarded a free kick inside their own half. Redar Saber lined up to take the kick and he let fly the most amazing shot I have ever witnessed. The ball flew past their keeper from all of 60 meters, but was ruled out by the referee because he awarded an indirect free kick which required touching by another player for to the goal to stand.

The River made it 2-0 shortly before half time, when Glenn scored also from close range.

Australind pressed hard before the break and forced 3 consecutive corners, but the River held firm to take the 2-0 lead into the break.

River made it 3-0 shortly after the restart of play, when Josiah Allington flicked a header in from a short corner at the near post.

At 3-0 up with 35 minutes remaining the confidence should be sky high, but although we have been scoring regularly we have also been conceding on a regular basis and when Australind reduced the deficit to 3-1 the nerves started to show.

Australind scored again 3-2 and the River looked a completely different team from the first half. We stop passing and were kicking the ball long out of defence, giving up possession.

Then a touch of magic literally from Alex Costa when he deflected a shot from Shogo Maida with a back flick into the corner of Australind’s net, 4-2.

Australind again reduced River’s lead from a free kick which was taken twice because the referee failed to notice the quickly taken kick, which our defence intercepted. This gave Australind a second chance which they took via the crossbar and deflected in, 4-3.

Woody Hangartner looked to have settled the result when he coolly curved a shot into the bottom corner to make it 5-3 with only 10 minutes of normal time remaining.

Australind were then awarded a penalty for tripping their attacker by Johnny Malpas our keeping when both players become entangled on the ground with the ball between the keeper’s legs, Australind converted, 5-4.

The referee added a further 6 extra minutes of injury time from somewhere, this helped Australind again to score and level the game at 5 all in this amazing match.

Player of the Match was a most difficult choice; it could have been any of 5 or 6 players that had exceptional games on this day. But I decided to share the award between Ted Brander in defence and Glenn Skyrme in attack.

The reserves also squandered a 2-0 lead to be beaten 3-2 in a closely fought game.

Player of the match went to Gordon Becker in his first game back.

I would also like to give Ned Allington a special mention for his great game in the reserves and his efforts in league match.